Perez was great, coming off DL. I wonder if Washington will ever realize that one of his bullpen aces, Robbie Ross, is too damned good to pitch just one inning every other day? This kid has a lot of promise and he can’t be intimidated.

This was only the 2nd time this month the Yankees have scored 7 or more runs in a game. Zoilo Almonte is trying to make a case for stay with the Yankees once Curtis Granderson returns, so far so good. Hopefully these 2 wins are a sign of this to come for the Yankees.

7 IP 5H, 1 ER if gardner makes that catch. It’s not like Myers hit the ball into the upper deck.

nbjays - Jun 23, 2013 at 11:53 AM

7IP, 6H, 5ER is what it was, not what might have been.

It was over the wall based on the account I read (link above). If that’s the case, it’s rather ingenuous to blame Brett Gardner for CC giving up a slam. Over the wall is over the wall… upper-deck homers don’t count for any more than wall-scrapers. Or are you saying Gardner is EXPECTED to go over the wall and pull a Mike Trout on that ball? The blame is squarely on Sabathia.

He loaded the bases- not Brett Gardner- after the Yankees had given him the lead- something he has done before. He’s the one that threw a fat enough pitch with 2 strikes and 2 outs that allowed Meyers to hit the ball that far. I’m sorry, but this guy hasn’t pitched to #1 Ace status- especially considering the size of the contract he was given.

Yesterday’s loss was an especially brutal one to watch as a Rays fan. Behind in the game, the Rays came back to take a 5-3 lead on a Wil Myers grand slam in Yankee Stadium, his first career home run. Wil Myers, our great hope for the future, for whom the Rays have sacrificed greatly, finally giving us a glimpse as to what we can expect for him. I was overjoyed. All this for naught, as our pitching, our greatest strength since 2008, burnt through that slim lead like kindling. It felt like a punch in the gut, the ultimate betrayal. The go ahead run came off of Vernon Wells’ bat with two outs, two strikes. Vernon Wells, of all people. Against the Empire. Of all our losses this year, I think this one was the hardest for me to take.

So THAT’S how that happened. Last I saw, your lads had the lead and McGee was on his way in. One more crack at sticking it to the Empire, ‘Burg. They can’t let Vernon Wells beat them like this. They get a victory today then they have a split. If they to get to The Empire earrly they’ll need to keep pouring it on because The Empire doesn’t just go away. They nibble at you and gnaw away . . . bit like rats, really. Anyhow, good luck today.

Yeah, that’s what happened. The Rays came undone, lying there in their Superman skivvies. Most unseemly.

Thanks for the words of support. Um, nice gravatar pic.

cur68 - Jun 23, 2013 at 10:45 AM

Unseemly is right. Especially ‘Nando. He’s gotta leave that plantain on the bench if he’s gonna loll about in his skivvies. My poor tender eyes!
Like my new pic? I WAS going to go back to the “leaning on hand” one, but I understand that everyone else calls it “The Face Punch”. Instead you get my “Angry Weasel”. Grrrr….

Whatever you say…(My interpretation, it’s a self-punch. Not that I judge. I feel like punching myself many times.) But sure, angry weasel works. Although, why so angry? Sweep those O’s, dammit. Good times to be a beaver fan. One win by the Jays, one loss by the Rays, and it’s out of that dark and dingy basement for you. Best take it easy when you get out. The bright sun may hurt your eyes after nearly three months in the cellar. Here, borrow my sunglasses. I’m used to the sun. Rays of sun, you know. The shock of seeing people may be startling too. Most are friendly, but be wary. The few mean ones can leave a mark. Approach cautiously. Mr. Weasel.

cur68 - Jun 23, 2013 at 12:01 PM

Hey, thanks for the specs. If I see my shadow I’ll head back into the cellar for another 2 months, though.

Happy to oblige. Two months in the hole is a weasel thing? I thought that was the groundhog. I’m getting all my rodents mixed up.

And I hope you kick some Crush Effin’ Davis ass, and the rest of them too for good measure. It would be epic for the Jays-Rays to meet up at the Trop with tied records. I will extend my welcome to the terrordome…”I got so much trouble on my mind/refuse to lose/here’s your ticket/hear the drummer wicked!”

uyf1950 - Jun 23, 2013 at 10:43 AM

Come on, what about the 13-0 loss to the Indians back on April 7 when the Indians really stunk. Or the 10-1 loss to the Royals on June 13. Those have to be pretty high up there on your list.

Nah, uyf1950. There was never any hope of winning those blow-outs. Hope, that most dangerous of emotions. If you’re going to rub salt on my wounds, you could do a better job. There were more heartbreaking losses to select. The Rays’ bullpen has provided no shortage of disappointment and blown games.

Yesterday’s loss was especially crushing because there was a great deal of hope. Hope that went by the name of Wil Myers, our future. He did the best any hitter can do in a single swing, a grand slam, and it was all for naught. That at bat is now just an answer to a trivia question, a mere interesting historical footnote, if he amounts to anything. As we hope.

uyf1950 - Jun 23, 2013 at 11:58 AM

My friend, I wasn’t trying to rub salt in the wound, and yes I could have picked close loses.

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged - Jun 23, 2013 at 11:24 AM

The go ahead run came off of Vernon Wells’ bat with two outs, two strikes. Vernon Wells, of all people.

I see you, you see me
Watch you blowin the lines when you’re making a scene
Oh girl, youve got to know
What my head overlooks
The senses will show to my heart
When it’s watching for lies
You can’t escape my
Private eyes
They’re watching you
They see your every move
Private eyes
They’re watching you

Last game of the series, O’s/BeaverWrestlers. This one should have a bit of emotion about it. After the words between Darren O’Day & José Bautista I imagine that there will be some emotion and possibly some pitches that are a bit inside. Could be quite tense.

The Beaver Wrestlers have exceeded my expectations and made it over .500 before the end of June. Now they have to stay there. I think they’ll be lucky to beat the O’s today. Too much talent there to get swept, I think.

It’ll be Josh Johnson toady, last and biggest of the CockPunchTrio™. Can he keep it in the park? Can he remain uninjured and into 7 innings before handing it off to the shut-down bullpen? I certainly hope so. These two clubs hit a lot of homers, most in baseball, I think. That’s hell on a pitcher, especially in a park where the ball carries to the seats easily.

Anyhow, win or lose, My Boys are playing for pride and fun today, as far as I’m concerned. Winning 10 in a row is more than I imagined possible so they don’t owe this fan anything. I hope no one gets hurt, but I want a good show, a well played game and, if the Lads of BeaverLand get a win, I’m not gonna complain about that.

4-0 now. E5 homer and some small ball. Providing they can keep Chris Effin Davis from hurting them, they SHOULD have enough pitching to hang onto that. Johnson’s leaving too many pitches up, around the belt and the strike zone is a moving target, so this aint over by any mean. Still, a lead is a good thing.

nbjays - Jun 23, 2013 at 4:23 PM

13-5 final… AKA an ass-whoopin’.

11 straight baby!!

proudlycanadian - Jun 23, 2013 at 5:52 PM

I missed the game, but I was confident that the Jays would score a lot of runs off Garcia.

But my point remains that when you start the season off wrong, it’s often very difficult to play at the torrid pace required to make up ground, particularly when other teams in the division who HAVE played well can afford to go into minor slumps here and there. The Jays will have no such luxury.

The Jays will need to play excellent ball and rely on a few teams faltering down the stretch. Not saying it can’t be done, but they’ll need the stars to align. It would be an amazing achievement.

cur68 - Jun 23, 2013 at 10:57 AM

Minor Miracle has already happened, Aces. Just to get back over .500 was more than anyone could have predicted for The Beavz. They had an advantage: they were well rested since it was obvious from April and into May that The BeaverWrestlers hadn’t been playing. They ran into tired times (Texas & Colorado), and have been lucky to get 2 past the O’s. If they extend this to 11 in a row, I’d be VERY surprised. The Orioles didn’t get to where they are by rolling over and there’ll likely be some gamesmanship with the José Bautista/Darren O’Day words yesterday.

Boston need only play .500 ball for the balance of the month: likely no one has what it takes to catch them. Empire is more riddles with injury than a Leper Colony, Orioles have a mere 5-5 record over the past month, The Devil Rayz are lazing about in their skivvies (or so I’m told) and there is no way The Beaver Wrestlers can sustain this winning streak.

Still, the season’s not even half way. In order for a team to crawl out of the cellar and contend, they need to do precisely what the Beavz are doing: winning series after series. By the AS Break, we’ll know more about these Beaver Wrestlers and their chances. Frankly, I’m a bit skeptical of their chances but I’m enjoying the hell out of this fight.

cur68 my friend. “Orioles have a mere 5-5 record over the past month,” What happened to the other 10 games they played this month?

cur68 - Jun 23, 2013 at 12:07 PM

Sorry, you are correct uyf. My error. That should read “5-5 over the past TEN and 11-9 for the month”. So barely above .500 thus far.

nbjays - Jun 23, 2013 at 12:03 PM

As I mentioned on another thread, Cur, the Jays spent April and May vastly UNDERperforming based on the talent on their roster, while the Yankees spent those two months vastly OVERperforming based on theirs. Now, like water, both teams are seeking their natural level.

It’s been a helluva fun ride this month.

nbjays - Jun 23, 2013 at 12:04 PM

Uyf, I think Cur is looking at the “Last 10″ column on the standings for that 5-5.

Old Gator - Jun 23, 2013 at 3:45 PM

Cur proves hissef a seasoned prognosticator. It’s 3:45 PM Sunday in Macondo and the Jays are up 13-4 in the Rogers Massacre. You would think we would have learned not to send forces into Canada back in 1812.

cur68 - Jun 23, 2013 at 3:50 PM

11 in a row, now. Ties the franchise record for wins in a row.
Woooot!

Well, it took another dose of incompetent umpiring – seems to be an awful lot of that going around these days, doesn’t there? – to make bycatch of the Feesh at San Andreas Park yesterday. It’s not like this hasn’t happened to them before, but usually they’re so far out of it that a bad call has as much impact on their game situation as a tinkle in the ocean. What should have been ruled a clear ground rule double when a ball bounced into the stands was ruled “fan interference” because a fan – gasp! – actually caught the ball bouncing into the first row of seats and the runner on first was allowed to score. Calls like that give bullshit a bad name. Memorably, it resulted in Mike Redmond’s first ejection as a manager.

No matter. On the bright side, the loss enabled the Feesh to keep pace with the ’62 Mutts who, a day after being no-hit by Sandy Koufax while the stadium loudspeakers played “Please Squash Me Like a Bug” by Barry Manilow, lost 5-1 to Don Drysdale but did manage a few compensatory hits – five, to be exact – to restore their sense of manliness in an era when testosterone underarm applicators hadn’t been invented yet. That left the Mutts at 20-54 versus 24-50 for the Feesh. Tomorrow, the Mutts ride the chronosynclastic infundibulum to this very Yerba Buena to take on the Willy Mays Giants in yet another ballpark that was not named after some bloodsucking zaibatsu.

In other news, the beavers were tail-whapping all afternoon but were blessedly quiet by sunset, which made it possible to hear the toads again. There’s one enormous Danton’s Toad (Bufo decadantus) who lives under the leatherleaf ferns by the pond who doesn’t need mating season as an excuse to make noise. The females have dispersed for the summer but Ole Gossip just croaks away – the bartender should have realized he’d already had one too many and politely refused that last drink.

Not just distracted, but terrified. That’s why there’s always a bowl of DAP soft chews on the lunch buffet table, and I sometimes suspect that orange sleeve the Iron Giant wears might actually be a Thundershirt™. But I’d be the last one to rag on anyone’s idiosyncrasies.

historiophiliac - Jun 23, 2013 at 12:57 PM

Finding myself once again a blackout victim, I turned to the local Fox station only to find the Rangers-Cards in rain delay. So as not to waste an open beer, I sat through a little of the Reds-whoever game. Whew, who wanted to watch that? Got some laundry done. Still, I was able to follow the Tigers game the way the Neanderthals used to do it — via Twitter and gametrax. The Sox scored twice early and I worried. Are they going to have our number from the start? Not if V-Mart had anything to say about it. He went Big Boom! with a grandee slamee in the bottom of the 1st. Wahooooo!!!! Then I worried because we had been ahead and then lost in several previous games. An early lead could turn to losing late. Not if A-Jax, Peralta, Infante and the gang had anything to say about it. It was 10-2 going into the 9th and I’d felt comfortable with a win since the 5th. Leyland Putkonen in. (Get it?) Luke felt a disturbance in his force, giving up one and warranting a visit to the mound. What words of wisdom do you think he heard: “Stop thinking; feel the force”? “Did I drop my gum out here”? “Quit dinking around, kid, and get the outs”? Whatever it was, it worked. A DP on the next play finished the game. His Heterochromianess goes to 11-0. Wahoooo!

BTW, I see that Joe Buck has grown a beard. It’s not bad. I find it an improvement for him. However, that does mean the beard thing is officially lamestream — much like the tattoo. Time to shave, gents. Otherwise, you look like Buck now.